Sunday, May 12, 2019

Ongoingness May 12, 2019

Worship on Sunday, May 12 …

Naming is a part of the “ongoingness” creation … from the very beginning! 
╬ In the Beginning Naming and the power of names have been a meta-narrative in Scripture, from the Creation forward.  God calls forth life and nests humanity in the garden of creation.  Man and woman, Adam and Eve.  God spends a delightful day bringing creatures to Adam to see what he will name them.  We see the emerging onoma of Abram/Abraham and of Sarai/Sarah as God’s calling on them transforms their lives.  And we engage the depth of meaning in God choosing “a place for God’s name” … where God will dwell among the people.

 Below are the Prayer of the Day and Readings. 

 Blessings to you all in the Eastertide!

 - Pr. Brad Highum
bhighum@abidinglove.org

 PRAYER OF THE DAY --------------------

 God of all, in naming us as your children, blessed and beloved, you give us a new birth in a new creation.  Inspire us to embrace our calling to proclaim and live out your name – your onoma – in all the earth: Grace, Justice, Peace, Compassion.  Amen.

 READINGS ----------------------------------

 First Reading:  Genesis 2:15-23
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."  18 Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner." 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken."

 Psalm 68:4-10
4 Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds — his name is the Lord — be exultant before him.

 5 Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

 6 God gives the desolate a home to live in; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious live in a parched land.

 7 O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness,

 8 the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

 9 Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad; you restored your heritage when it languished;

 10 your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.

 Second Reading:  Genesis 17:1-8,15-19
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous." 3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God."

15 God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "O that Ishmael might live in your sight!" 19 God said, "No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac.

 Gospel:  Luke 24:44-49

 44 Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
Posted by at